The Image in The Mirror
by jailynn
Summary: Small story about Rosalie. Unbeta'd. Please let me know what you think. Some 'Eclipse' spoilers


Title: The Image in the Mirror

Author: Jailynn

Rating: PG

Summary: She hated the image in the mirror.

Character: Rosalie Hale (other characters in the story –briefly- : Emmett, Esme, Edward, Bella)

Disclaimer: Not mine. All the characters belong to Stephenie Meyer

Feedback: Please and thank you

Type: Angst, one shot

Warning: Some 'Eclipse' spoilers, unbeta'd

Word Count: 976

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She hated the image in the mirror. She grimaced in anger. Her topaz eyes caught sight of a faded picture in the corner of her room. Memories of that time were everywhere. It was in the way men stared and women envied. It was in the quiet whispers that floated through the air toward her sharp ears while she pretended not to hear, she pretended to be something she wasn't any more. The words that used to bring her joy, were now a reminder of her prison. So beautiful, goddess like, everything they wish they could be…everything she wished she could be when she was like them. Warm, whole and _alive_. Rosalie Hale held her unnecessary breath in her chest, waiting for the pain to remind her that she had to exhale and inhale again. It never came. It would never come. All because of that night. That painful night where her fate was sealed and her destiny was established. _Destiny_, _fate_, _forever_…they were bitter words to her now. Almost as bitter as the taste the word _beautiful_ left in her mouth when she uttered it.

Her beauty led to this existence she hated. She despised the woman- no, the monster- in the mirror. Cold, broken, and _dead_. She felt that every time she watched a young mother hold a crying child to her body – soothing the ache with her warmth or a woman with a stomach round with a baby waiting anxiously for her due date to arrive. That was her only wish. Her only hope – to be a mother. To have a child to spoil and love. And it was taken from her. Now she had this porcelain perfection in the mirror, _beautiful_ for _forever_ but she wished for lines and memories of family instead. Rosalie touched her cheek. It might as well be rock…moving rock. That's what she was. Cut from life and animated by deadly venom.

The front door opened in the distance. Her husband and brothers were returning from the hunt for food. She sniffed the air and stiffened. Bella walked- and most likely tripped- amongst them. Free from this hell she found herself in, Bella strolled into their world with choices. Rosalie moved silently – every one of the Cullens were silent- toward the others. She leaned against the far wall once she reached the spacious living room. Bella smiled and blushed. Blood rushed through her veins, heating her cheeks, her heart beat was strong, Rose could hear it – she envied it the way others envied her looks. Emmett looked in her direction, his smile stretching in happiness. Rose smiled back, tighter than normal. It was hard to be around Bella. It was hard not to hate her and with the memories pulsing in her head, Rose didn't think she could stand trying tonight.

Without a word- not that anyone but Emmett and maybe Esme noticed- she spun back around and walked back to the room she shared with her love. She wrinkled her nose. Bourbon swirled through the air, followed by the stench of smoke and heavy night air. She was back in that alley. She could hear the men- drunk and yelling- behind her. Her stone body tensed as the rain of thoughts pounding on her mind. When she looked back on that time now, Rose tried to stand back from it. It was done. What those _men_ had done to her eighteen year old body was in the past and she had great joy in remembering what she had done to them once her vampire strengths and abilities were revealed to her.

A bittersweet smile pulled her unnaturally red lips apart thinking of Royce's screams for mercy, for his life. Mercy he didn't feel she deserve while he and his friends defiled her innocence and taken her life. Rose sighed, rubbing her hands together in rage it sounded like boulders rubbing against each other. The rage grew with every second she continued to smell Bella's scent and hear her heart beat.

Bella wanted to be one of them. She wanted to become stone. Hard, cold and _dead_. She wanted to give up her friends and family to spend eternity moving from place to place, forever frozen in time. Rose curled both hands into tight fists. Bella had the choice she wished she had had and she was throwing it away. What Rose wouldn't give to be standing in her shoes with the two roads that Bella had in front of her. What she wouldn't give to be human, warm and _real_.

The air changed in the room and Rose knew who was standing with her. He always stood with her. Emmett didn't hate what they were. He didn't curse her name for her making Carlisle change him. He welcomed forever. He welcomed whatever was coming and did it with joy she only felt while looking at him. Rose turned on her heels. Soundlessly spinning toward him and their matching topaz eyes locked. He held open his massive arms, reading her mind as quickly and accurately as Edward could without having his special power. She floated toward him and was immediately enveloped in cold, but somehow it felt like warmth coming from him.

Emmett was the only reason she hasn't tried to end this never ending existence. She hated what Carlisle turned her into, but Emmett somehow made it a little easier. Rose rubbed her nose against the skin that covered his stone neck and sighed. He held the memories that were haunting her at bay. Wrapped in his iron embrace, she closed her eyes. Rose would be forever beautiful. Her vanity would never suffer from this fate of living while dead. But her dreams were gone. Her wish for a baby to love would never happen and for that she will always hate the image in the mirror.

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The End


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